I have a '73 H14 which is in very good condition. There is however some pitting on the outsides of the deck and the bottom of the hulls show signs of wear from being beached/grounding out. The wear on the bottom of the hulls is maybe through parts of the first sheet of fiberglass, but mostly through the resin.

In order to prevent wear and tear, I have started sanding the hulls and pitted decks to re-coat them with resin and fiberglass sheet where needed.

Is this the wrong approach? Should I use fiberglass resin and just build up without the fiberglass sheet on both the hull bottoms and the deck, or should I use the glass sheet? Can I apply resin to a lightly sanded gel coat? Will the red tinted Bondo catalyst/hardener roughly match my red H14? Would Bondo or Epoxy work better for the deck/bottom?

I plan to buff with compound and then wax so that I get rid of oxidation and restore to newish appearance. Any advice for the non-slip area on the deck? It is a little dirty and faded... Is 550 cord suitable to re-tie the trapeze?

I've read lots of threads on this and other forums, but some basic questions still have not been answered.

To save time use the "bondo for boats", formula 27, it is grey in color. I'd not recommend using it on the keel, it is more of a finish filler. If you want to get back to the original colors, you'll end up having to shoot the boat with gel coat.

barkeepers friend (oxalic acid) will clean the anti-skid up well, mix it to a paste consistency, and scrub away.

I know nothing about chuting, or strength of that line."re-tie" the trapeze??? can you elaborate

Go to the Hobie Hotline Archive website below and check out the July and sept 2008 issues. One covers bottom jobs in detail the other has gelcoat advice. I followed the instructions (and some advice from this forum) and was happy with my results.

35 people have looked at my post, but no one can give advise? Seriously, come on...

Whining is generally considered bad form on this forum, but we'll cut you some slack since you're still a newbie.

The deck blip is mostly just gelcoat. Making is pretty is the hard part there. That faded yellow is really hard to match. Otherwise, just feather the edges a bit and rough up the center w/ 80 grit, clean with acetone and use your best guess at the color match with thickened gel coat. Sand smooth and buff out. You can either live with the slight color/finish mismatch - or buff out the whole boat. All depends on how pretty you want to make her.

The bottoms aren't that bad, either. The orange is worse to match than the yellow, but you don't have to make this repair look so pretty as long as you don't get stuff on the vertical side of the boat. Rough the area up, one or two layers of 1.5" fiberglass tape, sand smooth and you can call it done. If you want it to look pretty, shoot with gel, keeping the area sprayed to a minimum.

It ain't rocket surgery.

Do check out the HOTLINE issues suggested previously and join the Hobie Class Assn. if you're think they're worth it.

Thank you everyone for your responses and direction. The Hotline articles are very informative.

A few more quick questions...

If will put a few layers of FG tape and resin on the bottoms of the hull, sand, buff then wax will they be protected enough to stay tied to a buoy over the summer?

The boat hulls are Red and the deck is yellow, so I'm hoping that buffing and waxing will clean her up. Is this the case even with out having gel coat on the bottoms of hulls and in various spots on the hull sides?

I've heard that re-stringing the trapeze with parachute 550 is the way to go...has anyone used 550 cord?

I was told to use JB weld on the deck to fill in any missing chunks in the gel coat. Would it be okay to layer with FG resin instead and then buff and wax?

If will put a few layers of FG tape and resin on the bottoms of the hull, sand, buff then wax will they be protected enough to stay tied to a buoy over the summer?

Just about the worst thing you can do to your boat is to leave it tied to a mooring for more than a day or two. It's bad for the hulls (osmotic blistering, marine growth) and the rig (literally shaking it to death). Figure out anther way to store the boat.

winevine wrote:

The boat hulls are Red and the deck is yellow, so I'm hoping that buffing and waxing will clean her up. Is this the case even with out having gel coat on the bottoms of hulls and in various spots on the hull sides?

Not sure what you mean here. Nothing will bring back faded gel coat. Buffing and waxing will make it shiny . . . faded gel coat. What you've shown in the photos is cosmetic damage, although the deck ding should be at least sealed up with a coat of resin. It all depends on how pretty you want to make it.

winevine wrote:

I've heard that re-stringing the trapeze with parachute 550 is the way to go...has anyone used 550 cord?

Before, you said "trapeze" when you meant "trampoline" - so I'm thinking that's what you mean here, since 550 cord is totally unsuitable for a trapeze wire replacement. It's also not that good for lacing trampolines. You want a small diameter, very low stretch line to hold tension on the trampoline. Check out Annapolis Performance Sailing's line section (especially the sale line section) to find something suitable.

winevine wrote:

I was told to use JB weld on the deck to fill in any missing chunks in the gel coat. Would it be okay to layer with FG resin instead and then buff and wax?

JB Weld is just thickened epoxy - black thickened epoxy. Most polyester resins are translucent, and you can add pigments to them to try and match the surrounding gel coat (which is polyester resin). Use polyester resin for gel coat repairs.